


A Simple Little Dare

by DutchRenegade



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Dare, F/M, University Students, exam week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-11
Updated: 2021-03-11
Packaged: 2021-03-18 17:22:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29986272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DutchRenegade/pseuds/DutchRenegade
Summary: When Nat turns out to have the lowest average that semester, her friends come up with a dare. Will she kiss the stranger in the corner of the bar reading by himself?
Relationships: Bruce Banner/Natasha Romanov
Comments: 3
Kudos: 17





	A Simple Little Dare

Natasha looked around the table. Her family was all together, smiling and laughing. Sharing stories about their current life events. Next to her was her best friend Clint and his wife Laura. Beside them sat Tony and his girlfriend Pepper. Wanda and Vision sat across from her, and Steve and Peggy say beside them. The rest of the pub was lively and full of other university students taking the edge off after a long and grueling exam week. She smiled to herself. Of course, Tony and Vision would start comparing test results.

“Your grades might be the same but unlike theoretical science, in advanced mechanical engineering our results are based on performance, not words on a page,” Tony said to Vision. Vision scuffed at the audacity with a smirk.

“What Tony is trying to say is that although you boys are running ninety-fives on your finals, I’m running a ninety-eight, so technically I win,” Pepper chimed in with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. Tony narrowed his eyes at his girlfriend, inviting the challenge. The rest of the group now turned their attention onto the subject as well.

“Yes, but business is nowhere as intellectually challenging as theoretical science,” Vision retorted to Pepper’s comment.

“Are you jealous, Vis?” Wanda teased her boyfriend.

“Aren’t you? You’re pretty competitive. There is no way you have a higher score then that,” Vision challenged back.

Wanda shook her head, took a sip from her beer, and then glanced around the table. “True, I don’t beat a ninety-eight. But I am confident I don’t have the lowest final score this semester,” she said with a grin. She looked around the table again, the challenge slowly sinking in with everyone.

“Is this a challenge?” Clint asked.

“Oh dear,” Laura muttered under her breath.

Wanda nodded. “The one with the lowest final score this semester has to…”

“Do a dare. Right here, right now,” Tony piped in.

Everyone around the table laughed. But soon enough the challenge was underway. Wanda revealed a confident eighty-seven in her art and sculpture class. Peggy and Laura were tied at an even eighty-three for their relative classes. It was just Steve and Nat.

“If we know anything about Rogers, it’s that history might have seriously pulled your average up this year,” Vision remarked.

Steve nodded. “Nat? What’s your damage?”

Natasha sighed. “Can’t this be one of those _couples only_ things?” she asked. Her question was quickly shot down by everyone around the table. “Okay, okay,” she said. “But if I had had physical training this semester this would be a different story. My final average was an,” she paused for dramatic effect. “Eighty-one.”

“Eighty-two, baby!” Steve half shouted, pumping his fist in the air.

“Sorry to tell you Nat, but dare it is,” Wanda said. The group was quick to start discussing. Options were thrown on the table and tossed away just as quickly. Nat looked around the pub once again. She recognized a few of their other classmates. Everyone seemed relaxed and enjoying the fact that finals were over. Although she sometimes felt left out surrounded by couples in her friend group, she wouldn’t trade evenings like these for anything in the world. Drinks, jokes, and good company. She loved her little family. Even if they were currently discussing what assuming publicly humiliating dare they were going to put her through this time.

“Okay, I think we have agreed,” Pepper said. Nat turned her attention back to the conversation at hand. She looked around the smirking faces staring back at her and lifted an eyebrow questioningly.

“We would like you to go over there,” Wanda pointed to the opposite corner of the pub, “and kiss that strapping gentlemen reading in the corner”. Nat’s eyes went wide.

“What?!” she responded.

“It’s a simple little dare,” Steve teased.

A few minutes later, she stood up from her seat at the table. She had downed her drink and gotten a few encouraging words from her friends. She took one last look around the table. “You’re beautiful, he’s a lucky guy,” Clint joked. Nat rolled her eyes and took one last deep breath.

She made her way across the pub. The one thing she thanked her lucky stars for was that she would be out of ear shot from her friends. She could just tell him it was a dare and ask him to play along. Maybe he would be totally okay with it. She sure hoped so. As she was coming closer, she had to agree with Wanda, he was quite handsome, from what she could see.

He had dark wavy curls, carelessly tossed about. And a solid strong build. He sat in the corner booth, tucked away, reading a book. She couldn’t quite tell what it was about. But he seemed invested. He only lifted his hand every now and then to take a sip from his beer and scanned the pub every once in a blue moon. He seemed content in his corner and Nat almost felt bad for bothering him. _“It’s just a silly little dare”_ , she told herself.

She came to a halt at the edge of his table. She stood for a moment. She took a last glance over her shoulder. And was met with eight pairs of eyes staring at her. Clint waved his hand, indicating her to keep going and hurry it along already.

“Hi,” she said, not able to stop herself.

The young man now looked up from his book. His eyes were soft and gentle. He offered a friendly smile. “Hi there,” he responded.

“I’m Natasha. Romanoff,” she continued. She had no idea where to go from here.

“Bruce Banner,” he responded again. He didn’t seem too bothered being interrupted from his reading. Which was a huge plus. However, he seemed intrigued as to what allowed him the company that evening.

“I uhm…” Nat stumbled. _“Seriously?_ ” she thought to herself. She was never at a loss for words. “What are you reading?” she asked.

Bruce lifted his book, showing off the front. “Just some gamma ray theories,” he answered. He offered her another friendly smile.

“You’d get along with Vis for sure,” Nat mumbled to herself. Bruce looked at her questioningly. “Alright, here it goes. My friends are very competitive and were comparing final scores for the semester and for some ridiculous reason I ended up with the lowest score and because of that I have to do a dare,” she blurted out all at once. Bruce now looked even more confused. Not so much with the situation Nat found herself in but rather what he had to do with said situation.

Nat musted all her pride and suddenly found herself sliding into the booth beside the stranger. She sat down next to him. Bruce tilted his head in questioning. Natasha put her hand on the back of his neck and pulled him closer. Her lips touched to his. She was officially kissing a stranger. What she didn’t expect was that he swiftly kissed her back. The book landed on the seat with a thud. He placed one hand gently on her cheek, the other pulled her closer by the waist. He deepened the kiss. Suddenly Nat found herself in a passionate moment with a stranger in a bar.

Every pair of eyes from the table across the bar watched the situation unfold intently. They whispered amongst each other. “Yah Nat!” Clint shouted.

Nat pulled back. She took a deep breath. Her heart was pounding in her chest. She met Bruce’s glance. His eyes were now entangled with wonder and longing. Nat bit her bottom lip, trying to supress the giant smile forming. She shifted back and was about to pull herself out of the booth when she felt a hand move from her waist. Not having realized it had been there the whole time.

She felt her cheeks get hot. She was definitely blushing. She hated it when she blushed. Half of her wanted to run right out of the bar, the other half wanted to kiss him again. She opted to at least stand up. Bruce followed her and stood on his feet. “Hey,” he said to keep her from fully turning back to her friends. “If you ever need a tutor, you know where to find me,” he joked gently, tapping the booth’s table. He offered her a smile again. But this time it wasn’t just a friendly smile. This time it was a bright smile, full of curiosity and desire.

“I might just take you up on that, Bruce,” she answered. She offered him a quick smile before she turned and practically skipped back to her friends.

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed this quick little one shot. Leave a comment if you want more one shots of Bruce and Nat. I for one LOVE them as a couple and would have loved to have seen more of them together.


End file.
